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Some people have had to make it through traumatic experiences that neither they nor anyone else could ever have imagined. Nothing could have prepared them for what they experienced or witnessed. When that experience exceeds their ability to handle or deal with what happened, what hopefully occurs? The brain steps in and one of two things can occur. The traumatic experience is removed from conscious awareness, and it can stay that way until the time is right to remember it. The names of the removal mechanisms are suppression and repression. They are known as defense mechanisms.
The person experiencing the trauma may employ the defense mechanism of suppression. Somehow he or she may be able to push the memory and the feelings that go with it out of awareness. At the time he or she will not be consciously aware of how they are doing it, but the memory will not surface for a while. Suppression is a choice that a person makes and the brain accommodates.
Repression is similar but different. This time when faced with a traumatic experience the brain automatically removes it from awareness for you. You don't choose this one. It is automatic. The traumatic memory cannot be consciously remembered. The memory is hidden, and automatically blocked from conscious awareness. It will typically stay blocked until the right time or situation to be remembered is available. Psychotherapy is one such safe place to remember.
Psychologists call a traumatic memory that has resurfaced a recovered memory. The recovered memory may have been triggered in psychotherapy, or by some type of sensory experience like a place, a sound, or a smell. I have seen both happen in my work with patients. The caution here is that what pops into awareness might be a false memory, so verification needs to be done. The memory can be distorted in some way. As we piece together the recovered memory, false information may fill the gaps between the pieces. Memory is suggestible, so it is important to not let the memory get contaminated by inaccurate outside information or influence that can get woven into the memory. Then you may be left with a false memory which can have bad consequences.
Psychologists are careful when a recovered memory is encountered. First, if at all possible, they will verify first that the abuse, for example, had actually happened. Then they will try to be certain that the patient really had no memory of the trauma at all over time. Finally, was it actually remembered at a later time? The truth is that It is often quite difficult,or even impossible, to meet these criteria because actual evidence to either confirm or disconform the trauma is long gone. Additional therapy will have to happen, along with other aspects of psychotherapy, to clarify what happened and how it impacts him or her in their current life. If it is a false memory the patient may begin to realize that the memory is false. That is why memories must be dealt with carefully and verified if possible. If it is not possible to verify, you must not assume that it is a true memory until time allows one to gradually build confidence in its reality.
Suddenly remembering that something has happened or was done to you may answer some questions about why you think, feel or behave like you have been. If it is a false memory that you believe is true, that can have any number of consequences with bad endings, and responses that may be regretted. The difference between a legitimate memory and a false one can lead a person down two very different roads